"I write in order to attain that feeling of tension relieved and function achieved which a cow enjoys on giving milk." H.L. Mencken

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Rick Santorum: The Bad and the Good...

I was hoping Rick Santorum, returning after his years in the political wilderness after his loss in 2006, was going to be a fiscal hawk, small government, states rights guy. To some extent he is improved. Rick Santorum is spot on when he is discussing curtailing entitlements. Rick Santorum is wrong about earmarks though, because while only a small fragment of spending, earmarks are Congress' "walking around money" that makes entitlement curtailing and any other reform so damn hard. We need to scale back entitlements (the sooner we do it the less pain it will entail) and we need stop doing the practice earmarks to keep Congress honest.

I am not asking Rick Santorum to abandon his principles. I am asking him to get his priorities straight. As he rises in the polls and challenges Mitt Romney for the lead in this race, the media fire storm will be fierce and they will focus on all these videos far more than I am doing.

11 comments:

I liked Norquist's CPAC speech--but we are not trying to elect Norquist but a candidate to beat Obama. Norquist laid out a concise plan for a new administration (that all the candidates should adopt): repeal Obamacare and adopt the Paul Ryan budget. If a GOP congress and president pull that off they are heroes. Anything beyond that is gravy.

It is weird reading that story going back to 2001. And from The New Republic and Franklin Foer no less. I never saw that before. I almost expected reference to Jim Baker and the Carlyle Group. Thanks. Link

Grover Norquist (and several of the anti Israel paleocons such as Pat Buchanan and Scott McConnell) thinks that Muslims are a natural constituency for conservatives because they lead conservative religious lives.

Unfortunately, social cons tend to confuse choosing appealing language and setting priorities with abandonment of principles. It may have to do with the culture they were brought up in and the role models they looked to. They seem unwilling to learn, to step outside their bubble and acknowledge that there are all kinds of folks who are not the same as them but can be their allies. Instead, they imagine themselves already dominant, which is a colossal mistake. Leadership is about building coalitions, not about assuming you are already where you need to be, and getting angry and frustrated that the magical thinking isn't bringing the results.

I haven't yet seen a social con who makes that kind of "mistake" suddenly wake up, enlarge his perspective, learn a more inclusive vocabulary and put all that stuff behind him. Not saying I wouldn't like to see one succeed.